Mechabiological
by JadeKaiser
Summary: As opposed to Biomechanical. A young man in college triggers with a powerful and unusual tinker ability. Some may see a potential monster, some, a potential asset, and yet others, a young man who may be able to give mankind the edge it needs to survive. Shameless Self-Insertion/writing practice. Edits may take longer to show up here than on Spacebattles.
1. Prologue: Trigger

**Hmm, let's see here… I don't own Worm, It belongs to Wildblow, and names, locations, and a heck of a lot of other stuff have been altered in this story for the sake of maintaining my privacy. Duh.**

**This self-insert was rolling around in my head, and I felt like writing it out. I probably wouldn't have even touched my word processor, but I had gone and written out and posted a plot bunny the other night for the first time, and I suddenly want to have that feeling of putting one of my ideas out there for public enjoyment once again.**

**Huh. Maybe I will actually go long enough for my writing to become decently good.**

**Anyway, Prologue**** Start**

I am Jacob Grafter, and I think I am going to die very soon.

It makes no sense for a pair of capes to be duking it in the parking lot of my college, and even less for a couple of big names like this.

'Well, one of them is a _pretty darn big_ name anyway.'

It's just a small community college out at the edge of a small Wisconsin city. We should be in the middle of nowhere as far as people like them are concerned. That, however, didn't change the fact that Alexandria was busy having a friendly little deathmatch with Skeleton Crew and his nice little zombie horde about fifteen feet from me when I walked out the door to get into my car and drive home. Skeleton Crew didn't stand much of a chance, of course (which, come to think of it, might be why the two of them are here, if he was trying to run away from her.) That does little to console me from the facts that he has seen me, and that to him, bystanders are just more potential cannon fodder to kill and Master.

You see, Skeleton Crew is a villain from the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area with an ability that lets him take control of the bodies of anyone he or his victims kill. He can even make them use any parahuman abilities they might have had while alive, which might explain how he got all the way to here from his usual haunts before Alexandria caught up to him and took out whatever zombie he had with a mover ability. That's just speculation on my part, of course.

In any case, his zombies were after me and anyone else they came across as they chased me through the halls. I knew I couldn't out run them for very long. I'm not really the type to panic of freak out. Heck, I can only remember two times in my life where I have completely thrown rationality to the winds, and both were when I was _much_ younger. Even so, you can guess even _my_ mental state considering that one of the more messed up capes that shouldn't even have been in my STATE was about to kill me.

'I thought I was 100% safe from this psycho, dammit! He's practically never leaves his own little territory! Ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcr…'

_Two beings, incomprehensible to the normal human mind, spin endlessly through the cosmos. Shards of their existences are breaking off, trailing behind them. One such shard looms closer and closer to me, until it hits me and falls into myse…_

'What the? What just happened?'

I catch myself mid-stumble from the sudden vision. 'Vision? What vision? Didn't I just stumble over my own feet as I was running?'

The zombies chasing me have collapsed, and I don't let my confusion over this stop me from getting the heck out of dodge, since they might wake back up. Still, I get to relative safety long enough for Alexandria to take down Skeleton Crew. Apparently there was a kill order out for him. That makes more sense to me than the Birdcage. I still don't understand why they bother with that for so many other Birdcage-worthy villains that are reasonably killable. The death penalty was never outlawed anywhere here like it has been in a lot of states on Earth Aleph.

'If they aren't bad enough to put a kill order on, then shouldn't we send them to prison somewhere that it's actually possible for us to get them back OUT of? Maybe it's just me, but I don't see the point of giving someone a full-on life sentence instead of the death sentence if there is neither a chance for parole nor a reason why they can't die.' Like regeneration on a scale that makes killing them even harder than locking them up and throwing the key into a blast furnace, since that's pretty much what sending them to the Birdcage is.

Alexandria herself gets my testimony, since she recognizes me out of the crowd as the student Skeleton Crew first started chasing. I had nearly forgotten that she has a minor thinker power on top of everything else. It lets her do stuff like that.

Afterwards I ask her the all-important question that is on my mind. "So, I don't suppose I could get an autograph, could I? I mean, it's not like I'm obsessed or anything, but…"

"I understand," she tells me.

"Thank you," I respond as she autographs the back of my sketchbook. Nobody would let me live it down if I had the chance to get ALEXANDRIA's autograph and I didn't take it.

After she's done, she tells me I am free to go. By the time I get home, however, my thoughts are full of something else. I have _ideas_. Designs float through my head for things I could do to make myself _stronger, faster, BETTER,_ and I just know that I can make them work.

'...If I want to try that I'm gonna need a way to implant the pseudonuerological circuit into my head. Not to mention the connection to the brain or spinal cord, but I already know how that would work. If I want to provide it with enough power, though I will need to implant some kind of reactor. Bioelectric energy would barely be enough to provide low-level power for the nanomusuclature. Ah, that's an idea! I'll replace part of my intestines with a direct conversion reactor that will convert a portion of the matter from the food I eat directly into energy for the other implants!…'

"HOLY CRAP! WHAT THE HECK AM I THINKING?!"

'Implanting a reactor in place of part of my intestines?! Converting a percentage of what I eat directly into energy?! As in, perfect, complete conversion of matter to energy? Inside my BODY?! What the Heck?!'

But the more I think about it, the more I realize that not only could I do it, I _would_ do it. And it would _work._ Not just that, I could make a whole _host_ of modifications to my body, or to anyone else's for that matter. I_ would_ make changes, a least to my own body. And many of those changes might just as well be cape powers of their own.

I'm stunned by the implication. I can only think, 'Well, I guess, apparently, I'm now a cape; and not just a cape, I'm definitely a Tinker. A tinker who specializes in upgrading _people_ with technology.'

A/N

Well, what do you think? I will try to see if I can dredge up the inspiration to continue this, at least for a couple more chapters. If people like it enough to give me a decent amount of feedback, who knows where it might go? I have ideas for a couple more scenes, and I would have my SI move to Brockton Bay within a couple of chapters, though I have very little idea of where the story would go from there. If it does continue very long, expect updates to be somewhat sporadic. The more people review, though, the more I will feel obliged to keep writing, since it means that those people actually find it interesting, enjoyable, and expect me to give them more. Of course, if I get practically _no _feedback, it will give me the impression that nobody cares about it, and you probably won't ever see a second chapter.

I'm still no good at conversations, but I think I have at least one planned out decently enough for the next chapter.

Skeleton Crew is a villain I made up on the spot for the purpose of having a reason for my SI to trigger. The main aspect of his power is explained pretty well in the text. Any time he kills a living creature he gains control of its corpse. This applies to things that his zombies kill as well, and if he kills a cape he can control them into using their ability. The downside is the fact that they are, well, zombies, with pretty much everything that comes with that. They can't infect you just by biting you, though. They have to kill you. The reason why it counts is that Skeleton Crew is controlling them, so if they kill you it means that _he_ killed you. If He goes down, either by being killed or knocked unconscious, they stop functioning, although if he is still alive he gains control again when he wakes up. In the story, Skeleton Crew was close enough to Jacob when he triggered that it knocked him out. (I think that's canon… it seems to be fanon at least and I haven't actually read very much of Wildblow's original work yet. Just lots and lots of fanfiction.) Alexandria was a little farther away, so she wasn't knocked out and was able to use the opening to kill him.


	2. Setting Out 1-1

**In response to ****FTomato,**** a reviewer who made some good points:**

**-Okay thanks, I'll see about changing the spelling to Wildbow. I guess I've been reading that wrong.**

**-I think that tinker specializations are fairly public knowledge. Everyone in Brockton Bay knows that Armsmaster is the miniaturization tinker, for instance. Not everybody knows about tinker specializations, but it's not exactly a secret. Then again, I may be wrong about that, in which case I call creative license.**

**-Skeleton Crew isn't supposed to be a problem later on, and could you really see someone like that NOT getting a kill order? He certainly fills the 'has killed lots and lots of people for personal gain' and 'potentially major threat to the world' conditions that they seem to base those off of. He's just a plot device for the trigger event. Still, I might come back and do some story cleanup once I get farther in and get more practice at writing. Maybe I'll edit some stuff and change it so he's alive to be a recurring character. (I will say in the author's note at the beginning of a chapter if I have done so.) He is a pretty cool villain for someone I came up with on the spot, if I do say so myself. Anybody who wants to borrow him for their own stories is welcome to do so.**

**-I know the tinker ability doesn't much match the trigger event. Problem is, severe mental trauma like that isn't very likely to happen to me, or therefore a SI of me. I had the idea for the power and a SI, and then I went about trying to figure out how I might trigger. Honestly, a supervillain was the only thing that came to mind. I suppose I could have gone for one with a more psyche-damaging power, but hindsight is 20/20. I needed a trigger event, and anytime I thought of a situation for mental trauma I just couldn't see myself reacting that way. I honestly do agree with you on this though, which is why I had the trigger occur when my SI finished going into complete panic mode to make it a little more believable. I did so even though I thought it was putting myself, as represented by Jacob, out of character. Even so, I have some reasoning that may come up in chapter 3 regarding this topic.**

**-Grafter was what I came up with instead of Olson, which is what it was in my first draft. See? it could have been worse... It wasn't until after I wrote it out and decided that it was better than my other ideas that I realized that it looked kind of relevant to the powers I was giving him. I thought about it for a second, and then just shrugged my shoulders and decided I didn't really care. In any case it's what I have to work with, now.**

**-Bonesaw and the Slaughterhouse 9 will figure majorly in the story later on. I already had that planned, and I'm making no secret of it, to the point where I very nearly put Bonesaw or Jack Slash as one of the character tags. His powers are actually quite a bit different from hers, since his are more focused towards tinkertech implants and possibly cybernetics, while as I understand it hers work almost exclusively with biology. Jacob upgrades people with tinkertech, while for Bonesaw the people ARE her tinkertech. I cannot emphasize this enough. Their powers would work together very well, but would be complementary, rather than redundant. The resemblances, both apparent and actual, will not be ignored however, and were one of the main things I was thinking about as I wrote the summary and decided on the title for this story. Exactly _how_ the Slaughterhouse 9's involvement will go... I have no idea yet.**

**I'm going to try writing this chapter from a more standard perspective instead of first-person of Ch1. Any resources that Jason has to start out are only there because my family in real life has them. We have a lot of junk and a lot of tools that might be useful, even if many of them would have to be repurposed from woodworking.**

**I gave you your disclaimer last chapter! You want one anyway? Too bad laddie! Go read the other one! Not like I've bought Worm from Wildbow since then or anything. *grumbles about kids these days and slams front door* Seriously though, I don't own anything here that belongs to someone else, just my OCs and inserts, and.**

"speech"_'thoughts'__emphasis__ALSO EMPHASIS OR SHOUTING__stuff from a superpower_

**STORY START**

It was three days after he had triggered, and Jason stared at his laptop as he held an internal argument. 'I could really use the parts… NO! I need my laptop for all sorts of things! Even if it is a pretty cheap model… But I need it for sure in order to get the other parts that I need. Then again…' Suddenly he had an idea. 'I do NOT want to part out my laptop. That early Windows XP days _desktop_ of mine, on the other hand…'

Jason had already disassembled his half-broken I-pod, several old and broken monitors, a couple of other old computers that didn't work anymore, an old and likewise broken printer, and anything else the Grafters had sitting around that might be helpful and wouldn't really be missed. He was suddenly very glad that his dad had never gotten around to getting rid of any of their electronic junk like he had been meaning to. Those parts, combined with some wires and devices from various science kits they had in storage from years of homeschooling and the parts he had bought at the hardware store or ordered online, would let him get started on his first projects. He was still rather limited until the online orders came in the mail, but he could make do for now.

And so, Jason started work on his first projects: the tools he would need to safely implant things, and what he could do so far on a reactor to power his other implants. The tools were what he would have the most trouble figuring out. He ran over what he would need.

"Surgical Tools are a must. Also something that would let me operate on myself without pain, blood loss, or my own movements getting in the way too much. Preferably a way to give myself some forgivability for any mistakes I might make. I think I know something that could work for the last two, but I'm not sure how well I'll be able to build it. Unless I made it as a prototype for a device that will eventually go _inside_ my body… AHA!"

With that last thought pulling the project within his realm of purview he felt he could do it. In fact, Jacob wasn't sure why he hadn't thought of something so critical before. It wasn't going to work with the parts he had access to right now, though. Jason resigned himself to spending the remainder of his savings on materials, and went back to shopping online. He was going to need some backing pretty soon.

++++++++break++++++++

-3 weeks later-

Jason was ready for the first major implant. All diagnostics and safety tests checked out, his tools were sterilized, and it was time for the operation. A sheet was laid out on his bedroom floor with his most important safety measure in place on top, his tools were ready and within reach, and the reactor in his hands was complete. He laid down on his back, centering his abdomen on the device before activating it. The area of his body he would be working on was now placed into a parallel subdimention in just the right way. He sat up slightly. Despite the fact that he was using several muscles in the target area, it showed no signs of change.

Jacob began cutting with the scalpel. He felt no pain, and little to no blood came from the cuts. 'Excellent,' he thought. Several muscles and organs were shifted out of the way, and he began the process of installing the reactor. It would be connected at the juncture of his large intestine and rectum, so that his body would retain the maximum nutrition and moisture from his food. A tiny percentage of the waste matter would be siphoned off into the reactor and converted directly into energy; the exact percentage being determined by a base setting that was adjustable on both a temporary and permanent basis through a neural interface with his central nervous system in case he needed more power for something. And he _would_ need to adjust it as he added more implants, or when he needed to feed more power to those implants for something specific.

Jacob was almost finished when he heard his dad get home. 'OH CRAP! Please don't come downstairs until I'm done, please don't come downstairs until I'm done…' Mr. Grafter, Jacob's dad, came downstairs. 'Please just be getting something from the fridge. Please…'

"So whatch'a working on Jaco-GRAAAGAAACK?! WHAT ON EARTH?!"

"STOP DAD I'M FINE! DON"T CALL 911!"

Mr. Grafter, barely taking in the tools and electronics sitting around his 20-year old son who was SITTING THERE WITH HIS GUT CUT OPEN, rightfully demanded information. "What on Earth are you DOING Jacob?!"

"Okay, this is going to take some explaining, and I need you to calm down while I tell you all about it. I'm usi-"

"Calm down? You cut your GUT open! What-"

"YES! and I've taken every precaution normally possible and a few that most certainly aren't to make it _perfectly safe_. Do you see this thing I have set up around my lower body? That's a Subplanar Parallator, and it-"

"A what now?" Mr. Grafter asked a bit more weakly as he slowly slid to the ground against the doorframe. All the wind was knocked out of his sails by the way Jacob was talking and acting about the whole thing.

"Well, technically it's a Localized Correlative Parallel Subplane Generator. I shorten it to subplanar parallator, or just parallator. I made it. I'm a cape, dad. A tinker."

"O-Okaaay. So please explain to me why that means you have to _cut your gut open_."

'He's a bit hung up on that, isn't he,' Jacob thought.

Jacob began to talk slowly, so as to choose his words very carefully, even as he finished stitching himself back together. "Alright, so you know how different tinkers work with different things? That isn't something they choose. Every tinker has a slightly different power. Different tinkers have different areas that their power makes them good in. My power involves upgrading people. You know, like cybernetic implants. I have trouble making anything else, and I _have_ to tinker. To put my ideas into reality. I'll go crazy if I don't. The Subplanar Parellator is something I made that takes an area and makes a parallel alternate subplane, or subdimention, if you want to use the more popular, incorrect term, of that area and lays it over the real one. So basically, the entire surgery is happening in a parallel subplane, so it's like I'm operating on a dead body with no heartbeat. I don't feel any pain, and nothing I do with those parts of my body affect what I'm working on unless I go completely out of the field or something. The body parts don't start to rot because they are effectively frozen in time apart from any outside influences. Once I'm done I can swap out the subplane and the actual one."

"So if you can make things like that, why can't you just... Why do you have to do surgery on yourself?"

"I could only make this because it's a simplified version of something I made to go _in_ my body, dad. In fact, the one I just implanted with the reactor is something I'll need for this to work right. I need it to maintain the subplane. The way I have it set up, once I switch the subplanes out the modifications will still be in the parallel one, it's just that all my bodily functions will start to route themselves through there instead of the original one until I switch them back for the next operation. That way it gets really hard for someone to damage my implants or vital organs. There's some stuff in there that really should_ not_ work, but it does because, well, tinkertech." Jacob had gotten more confident in what he was saying as his dad began to calm down a bit.

Mr. Grafter massaged his face with his hand. "Most fathers have to worry about their college kids doing drugs and reading porn behind their back, but I have to worry about you performing surgery on yourself on your bedroom floor. How long have you been this way?"

Jacob finished the pulling his skin back together and smeared a small amount of what appeared to be white paste of some kind from a mason jar along the last incision. It would hold it together safely for the time it took to heal, but it wouldn't make it heal any faster than normal. That part seemed to come with the superpower, even if it was really weak. "Only been a couple of weeks since I triggered. Remember when Skeleton Crew attacked the college? This was my first major operation. I needed a reactor to provide power for all the other implants I have planned, and an implanted parallator, so I made them a single unit." He flicked the switch on the external parallator, and felt the additional energy from the reactor suddenly begin coursing through his body as he adjusted its power output the last little bit with a mental nudge. "I did do a couple of things with Korea over the last week though." Korea was the family cat. Jacob stood up and started packing up his materials. "Well, I'm done. You want to get some supper?"

"I thought you _liked_ Korea. You always say cats are your favorite animal."

"I _do_ like Korea. That's why she isn't going to be dying for a _looong_ time now."

Mr. Grafter shook his head in disbelief for a second, then nodded as he too got up. "We're going to talk about this some more while we eat."

+++++++break+++++++

And talk about it they did. Several more questions had been asked and answered, such as where Jacob's materials had come from, but now one of the most important ones was on the table: "So what will you do with your powers Jacob?"

Jacob had thought about this question himself for quite some time before he decided on his answer. "I'm going to join the Protectorate once the semester's out. Computer networking isn't what I want to spend my life on anymore now that I'm a tinker, and I've pretty much used up my savings on parts already. I need a backer, and maybe some other tinkers that I can get some tips from. Some of them have specialties that would open up whole new avenues of research for me if I had their input. The Protectorate can give me that, and a place for me to use what I make, too. Um, villain groups that found out about me will start trying to conscript me forcefully if I'm not already affiliated, too. I thought of Toybox, but my stuff isn't really the sort of thing that can be sold the way they do. Uh, Toybox is a group of tinkers that make and sell their stuff commercially. I suppose if I don't like the Protectorate I can still go there, but my stuff isn't easy to work like that. I mean it would still be possible for some of it, just…not really ideal I guess."

"But I suppose going out to fight villains _is_." Mr. Grafter sighed. "Well, I guess it makes sense. Why is it that capes always go out into the public like this?"

Jacob knew the question was rhetorical, but he really felt he should say something anyway. "Because if they don't then they have to always hide what they can do? I don't know about non-tinkers, but I just have so many ideas I think I would go mad if I didn't make some of them. Or use what I make. Other capes probably just can't help chasing that feeling of doing something that other people can't. I know how I would feel about doing stuff that just isn't normally possible without even trying. How I _will_ feel, I guess, once I get some more implants done. Anything else you want to know?"

"Probably, but I suppose that does it for now. You get to tell your Mom about this with me though."

+++++++++break+++++++++

A/N

**Once again, Read and Review to make me more likely to update faster. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside to know that people actually care about what I write, and helpful input to improve my writing is something that I will greatly appreciate.**

**Now if only I was as good at talking to people as Jacob is here in real life... Helps a lot when you control both sides of the conversation and can go through and edit it as much as you want.**

**Now, there is a **_**very important poll**_** going up for this story on my profile. I have an idea for an Alt!Power Taylor for this story and a reason for why the appearance of my character could change it. I even have the scene behind this possible change in mind, but I want your opinion on whether or not I should do it. The poll results won't be something that I take as gospel, but they will have a definite impact on my decision.**

**It may take a bit for me to update again, since I have finals to study for at the college.**


	3. Setting Out 1-2

**So, I had kind of lost a lot of interest in this after I took a break from it for finals, and I had found some major plotholes that really didn't work (see big, long ending author's note for a major one). On top of that it didn't have many reviewers, and it didn't seem like there were any more coming in. So...I didn't feel there was enough interest to make me too guilty if I dropped it, or to make it worth as much as I hoped for helping to learn how to write better. All this combined with the fact that this is more of an exercise in writing to me than anything else, so I didn't really plan out much of the plot beyond "this should/would happen at some point" for a few things, I was going to just give you what I had written and summarize what I had planned while shutting it down.**

**BUT**** then I decided that I might as well at least check to see if there were any more reviews first and, lo and behold, there were THREE more since I had stopped checking regularly. This inspired me to forge on ahead. Yes, the continuation of this story is due entirely to the 3 brave souls who cared enough to give some feedback. Your reviews MATTER, people! Review MOAR!**

**Of course, I had to rewrite most of what I had so far on this chapter, since half of what I had just didn't get anywhere in my mind's eye.**

**I changed Jacob's last name slightly. It is now Graft, instead of Grafter. I plan to retcon the earlier chapters for this someday, but for now I'm too lazy. Yes, I'm a horrible writer, and it shows all over the place. That is one reason why I am writing this in the first place though. The only way to become a better writer is to write, and to get feed back from other people on said writing. This is one of the most important secondary functions of fanfiction, with the primary ones being "Because no-one else can!""And 'Cause it's fricken' FUN!" -kudos if you get the reference-**

++++StartChapterBreak++++

Contessa checked the Path to Victory once more before calling Alexandria. No changes to throw off the path. Scion's and Eidolon's recent actions weren't affecting the factor in question. Good. Her call went through and she immediately got down to business once she had confirmed that Alexandria was on the line.

"The Protectorate in Eau Claire, Wisconsin will be recruiting a new member tomorrow with a tinker specialization in implants and body enhancements. Find an excuse to be there as Rebecca, and while you are there meet and welcome him to the PRT. Suggest that he move to Brockton Bay to work with Armsmaster, as their specializations will work well together. Tell him the PRT would facilitate his move should he choose to do so because the Brockton Bay Protectorate has their hands full, while Wisconsin is pretty quiet. Offer him reduced official scrutiny of anything he does to himself as an incentive, so long as more thorough scrutiny is made of any projects he does for others. That will tip the scales enough for him to make the right choice. Questions?"

After a moment Alexandria asked, "Does this have anything to do with your instructions two months ago? Specifically, the instructions that lead to the death of Skeleton Crew? It was in the same general area, as I remember."

"Most likely. the new recruit being in the Brockton Bay Protectorate is a key part in several major paths. It will probably create some new problems, but he should be decent enough at cleaning up after himself. Once he decides, ask him to fly in to Brockton Bay over the weekend for a personal PR event at several local schools so as to introduce himself to the city. There is only one week of public school left, so he can come back to pick up any additional personal effects afterwards. It doesn't matter which schools he visits, so long as one of them is Winslow High. Have a part of the event be a drawing in which several random students get to meet and talk with him personally for fifteen minutes or so."

"Spelling?"

"W-I-N-S-L-O-W."

"Got it. Thanks."

Contessa ended the call and leaned back in her chair with a smile. She had just set up a few butterflies that would create some very large hurricanes in the future.

+++++++break+++++++

Four weeks and change after Jacob's talk with his dad, followed by the reveal to his mom and each of his siblings in turn that the youngest of them was now a cape, the semester was over, and Jacob was going stir crazy. He had run out of enough materials to finish anything after his next project after the generator/parallator. Even after having scrapped the jury-rigged external parallator for parts, and even taking into account the extra money from tax refunds, this held true. His projects weren't cheap. He now had a minimal framework to install his future projects in, along with a low-tier overall body enhancement as a side-effect, but he couldn't complete any of the things he wanted to build into it.

That brought him here, to the most local PRT headquarters in the area, dressed in a fedora, a makeshift mask, and a suit that rarely left Jacob's closet. Not the best of disguises, but it did the job for the moment, especially when it turned out that the PRT's Chief Director Costa-Brown happened to be both on site and free enough to give him an interview herself on short notice. Jacob didn't imagine that happened often. The mask had come off by that point, and he was rather glad he had decided to go with something as formal as he did. Much the opposite of earlier when he had been let loose in a workshop full of materials for a demonstration.

The Director looked over one of the forms he had filled out in the lobby. "Jacob Graft. You say here you are a tinker with a specialty of tinkertech implants and body enhancements. Could you please clarify? Give me an example of something you have done already."

Jacob described briefly his generator before touching on his second project: power distribution. "In order to get the power from the reactor to any future implants I had to come up with something that wouldn't involve either damaging cellular tissue or extensive surgery throughout my body. What I came up with uses a sort of energy waveform that travels throughout the body which actually helps improve things a bit instead of doing damage. I'm less likely to get sick and just a little bit stronger and faster than I would be normally. This way I won't have to try and hard-wire power to anything new."

Director Costa-Brown nodded. "I guess I understood enough of that to see why things could get messy rather fast if you did, though it wouldn't go over well with the approval board. Tinkers have to go through a number of tests and an extensive approval process for anything they create. You in particular are likely to run into a number of problems getting approval for anything, considering your specialty. I might have a solution for that, but I want to know why you decided to come to us. You don't seem like you want specifically to be a hero. Explain your reasoning."

"Well," Jacob thoughtfully, "There's a couple of reasons I guess. I don't just want to make stuff. To turn myself or other people into supermen." Rebecca quirked an eyebrow at that as he continued. "I want to _use_ the enhancements I make. It doesn't do me much good being able to do stuff if I don't actually _do_ it. I want to feel what it's like to bend the world to my will around me, and this is the place I can do that legally and stuff without having to hide it."

"Well at least you're honest about it," interjected Rebecca.

Jacob snorted slightly in humor. "I guess. I've always been a bit of a cape-geek, anyway. That's only one reason though. I really can't afford to do much on my own, so I need a backer of some kind. My stuff is awesome, and I make it basically maintenance-free, but it costs a…well, a lot of money to make. You people left a good impression on me when I triggered, too. Alexandria saved my life, so there's that."

Rebecca felt a sense of vindication at that statement, but she merely nodded in approval. "Alright then. I'm glad she could be of assistance, and I know she would apologize for not being fast enough to avoid putting you through the trauma of a trigger event were she here. I did notice that you used some rather expensive materials making that thing in the workshop to demonstrate your tinker ability. Speaking of which, what will this do once you implant it?"

"Meh, it could have been worse." Jacob was feeling a bit more comfortable than he had at the beginning of the conversation. "As a devoted cape-geek I know enough to know that my trigger was pretty darn mild, so please tell her not to worry about it. As for the thing I made…" Jacob looked at the object in question on the desk where he set it down upon entering the room. It was about the size of an egg, but made primarily of a flexible tinkertech material similar to silicon and shaped rather oddly so as to fit properly in the right part of the human body. He grinned. "That's my introduction to the Blaster category. It'll create and direct high-energy ions as I want it to, particularly in streams. It wouldn't be restricted to that, though, because neural interfacing is awesome. Anyway, think beams of energy that range from 'burns you badly' to a bit beyond 'melt through a two-foot brick wall in half a second.' Assuming I keep to stuff small enough that it won't hurt me in the process. It won't really have a Manton Effect."

That made Rebecca frown. "That sort of lethality is not acceptable when fighting most villains." Jacob opened his mouth to respond, then closed it as she kept talking. "Please tell me why you should be allowed to implement something like this, especially since it poses some danger to yourself, as well."

"Well, if I don't have lethal options, then how am I going to do any good? People need to know that I can do some real damage, or they'll ignore me. Besides, what about Endbringer fights, or if I'm dealing with one of the villains that _is_ acceptable? Plenty of parahumans have some pretty heavy artillery built in, and I can use it other ways too. If I make a disk of, well, let's just call it plasma for now; anyway, I could make a disk of it in front of me that vaporizes incoming projectiles, or stuff like that. I took the idea from something from Earth Aleph that I watched once. And I can't exactly put the Manton Effect into something I make. It's like a gun or a knife, or even a baseball bat. It isn't a power itself, just a device made with one. You can't make a gun that makes the person holding it immune to its bullets. That's what Gun Safety's for."

Rebecca's frown eased a bit. "Very well. I see that you actually thought this through, rather than just building whatever came to mind."

'Not really. Just common sense to me,' Jacob thought.

"I would like to give you a proposal," she continued. "This part of Wisconsin has very little to deal with in the way of villains, and the Protectorate here has a fairly good handle on things here compared to some other places. I would like you to move to somewhere that is a bit more pressed for help. Have you heard of Brockton Bay?"

Jacob blinked. "Um, wow. I guess that's a bit sudden for me. I…yeah, I've heard a little bit about it. They have a lot of villains there, right? Is there any reason you want me there in particular?"

"Yes," nodded the Director. "They have a great deal of villains, and not enough heroes, but one of the heroes they do have is Armsmaster. He is a tinker specialized in efficiency, and is particularly good at making things very small. I assume that you can see how his input could be of great utility to you."

Jacob thought for a few seconds. "I guess that is pretty obvious, but I'm not sure that I want to move halfway across the country to a place that violent just for that. Especially since you said that I probably would have all sorts of trouble getting my stuff approved anyway, so making it smaller might not be what I need."

"I'll see if I can come to a compromise regarding the approvals. Would you be willing to move in exchange for some special considerations for your tech, taking into account the difficulty of truly testing it beforehand? So long as you go through the full process first for any enhancements for other members of the team, testing copies of them thoroughly yourself while under observation, and sign a number of waivers, I can see to it that _most_, at least, of the red tape disappears for anything you do to yourself."

By the time she was done talking Jacob was nodding slowly. "That, I would move for. Is there anything else, then?"

"Yes, if you are willing to move to Brockton Bay. I would like you to perform a Public Relations event, ideally at some of the local schools, to introduce yourself to the city and give you a good first impression in the eyes of the public. However, the public school semester ends after this next week. Would you be able to fly there on Monday? You could, of course, return afterwards to pick up any personal effects that you weren't able to pack on such short notice." She was wrapping up the second to last of Contessa's directives, now.

"Huh. Well… Yeah, I suppose I could if you need me to. I made sure I was ready for some sort of change like this before coming here. 'Suppose I wasn't thinking of anything this major at the time, but if I can come back for my stuff afterwards I guess I don't see why not."

"In that case, Jacob, Welcome to the Protectorate."

++++EndChapterBreak++++

**And Contessa makes her first appearance! She's not tagged in this story by mistake, no siree. This chapter was mostly about getting Jacob to Brockton Bay, and getting the inevitable entry into the Protectorate interview out of the way, while explaining/foreshadowing a couple of things. Not that I can really foreshadow effectively when even I have very little idea of where the story is going plot-wise, but hey. Also, we get another look at just how utterly OP this SI might get. His first implant beyond getting things ready is to completely replicate **_**_There will be some sort of reward to the reader who guesses the character correctly first. PM me with guesses._**_** (EDIT: This Contest is now closed, as somebody has won it. See the note at the beginning of Interlude 1-b for more details.) Seriously, given enough time and materials, and maybe a bit of help from other tinkers, he could probably bring himself (or someone else) up nearly to the level of Buster!Taylor from ****Hope Through Overwhelming Firepower****. That would be a looong way down the road, though. Let's hope I don't turn him into a Gary stu by accident, shall we?**

**Alright, so. Major Plothole. I mentioned in the beginning author's note last chapter a number of responses to the helpful input of ****FTomato****. One of his concerns was the fact that the trigger event didn't seem to match the power. I have, since writing the last chapter, found an official description of what sorts of things result in what sorts of powers in a trigger event (Weaver Dice Rulebook, found at ****[ docs .google .com**** document /d /17WIAhETdtVGSKzFuDYOT2_6U_MMXmTGyzCziYhCwozo /edit#heading= ]**** Remove brackets at beginning and end, the spaces in front of each slash mark, and the spaces in front of the periods in front of "google" and "com" for the address once you've copy-pasted it into your browser bar for the link. make sure to add in the "htt ps:" and the "/" "/"in front. Sorry it's so convoluted, but it takes some Taylor level munchkining to make it understandable with the stuff they do on this site. Hopefully I didn't miss anything there.)**

**Needless to say, if there is one power category that I or my self-insert would absolutely NEVER trigger with, it would be the Tinker category. "****Issue proves difficult to resolve, unsolvable problem, typically over an extended period of time (weeks or months)." That is the condition under which a Tinker triggers. I simply do not work that way. I am firm believer in Jesus Christ, and I trust that he will take care of any problems that I can't. He always has, always does, and always will. I have LOTS of experience with this for my age. If I can't deal with a problem, or even if I'm just not entirely confident in my ability to do so, I don't really worry about it. It always resolves itself somehow or turns out all right in the end. That kind of attitude makes for a lower chance of triggering, but not much in the way of lasting trauma from a trigger event. That is one reason I went with a trigger like the one I did, but it really doesn't work for a tinker. It could work for anything from a Mover (need to get away from the zombies), Thinker (Rapidly reaching a mental crisis point in the form of panicking from the zombies), Blaster (large number of zombie humans chasing, coming from a distance away), Shaker (zombies are somewhat "abstractly" human and "environmental danger"), Stranger (Attention from a group of zombies/Skeleton Crew himself causing panic), Trump (Other powers very much involved in trigger event), or maybe even Breaker (Metaphysical danger in the form of being turned into a zombie after death). If the zombies had caught up before Jacob triggered you could even throw in Brute (physical pain and damage), Striker (Zombies right in his face attacking him), and maybe Changer (Realization that he will never be the same again, even if he manages to survive somehow). With that, it covers every single category EXCEPT Tinker. Still, I wrote this the way I did, and now I have to deal with it.  
**

**Incidentally, the canon "Locker Incident" somehow manages to fulfil the criteria for EVERY SINGLE ONE of the trigger event categories in some capacity or another, depending on how you, or more importantly, how Taylor at the time, look(s) at it. Interesting, right?**


	4. Setting Out 1-3

**Yay, here's the next chapter! I even got my first ever Anonymous Nonsensical Flamer Review for the last one! That has to be some kind of right of passage!**

**I deleted said review of course, but he did make one good point: my author's notes have been way too long. As such, you will have to head on over to Spacebattles(link on my profile page) to find most of the more in-depth knowledge than I post in-chapter from now on. I like the forum format, and just about everything else there, better anyway. I will tell you now though that _some of the major plotholes, like he one I ranted about last chapter, are now things that I am going to pretend were purposeful._ Why? because after I figured some things out about where I was taking this story I realized that they would actually make perfect sense. And now, On to the Chapter.**

1.3

Taylor's POV:

Yesterday they announced that there would be an event today in the school gym for us to meet the newest member of the Brockton Bay Protectorate. First he would introduce himself, then there was a question and answer session for the whole school. After that there was supposed to be something special, but they hadn't told us what it was.

As it starts I sit as far away from the Trio as I can. His costume looks like a dark grey military field jacket and BDU pants, but modified a bit to fit a slightly more 'angelic' theme. It goes surprisingly well with the cream colored mask, which is stylized to look like the tip of a pair of Angelic wings covering his upper face. He doesn't seem terribly enthused about talking to the whole school, but he manages to stumble through introducing himself, if a bit haltingly.

"Hello, I'm Seraphim. I'm…new as a cape, but I'm moving here to Brockton Bay for to join the Protectorate here. I guess I'm what you would call a Tinker, so that's a cape that makes technology way beyond anything other people can do." At this point he seemed to be livening up a little bit. "I specifically can make things to upgrade myself and basically give myself other powers. I haven't been around very long yet, so I don't have a lot to show you, but as an example:" He motioned off to the side towards a few targets that had been set up with a thick backdrop. "I would like to demonstrate something I did recently."

He raised his arm in the general direction of the targets. Several balls of glowing green energy grew rapidly out of nothingness shifting around it, and as each one reached an arbitrary size it elongated just slightly towards the targets before lancing out, decimating one of the targets and searing into the backdrop. All this happened in barely a second, and when the barrage finished there was little more than pieces left of the targets. An "Ooh!" and several other exclamations came from the crowd, myself included. I had to admit, that had looked really cool.

He turned back towards us with a smile. "Well, I suppose I should ask if there are any questions now, so if you have one please raise your hand and I will call on you." He pointed at a guy who had raised his immediately. "You there first. What would you like to know?"

"Why did you pick Seraphim for your name?"

"Well, I always had this feeling that I wanted to fly. I especially always thought how awesome it would be to have angel wings, and go flying around on them. I can't do that quite yet, but I have some plans that'll make it possible soon. The Seraphim in the Bible are among the greatest of the angels. 'Above him stood the Seraphim; each had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.' That's also why my mask and boots look the way they do." He was a lot more comfortable with this than he was before when he was just giving a speech. He pointed to the next raised hand.

"Why did you move to Brockton Bay?"

"My home is really quiet, so they didn't really need another Protectorate cape there, and they could afford to send me here to learn from Armsmaster."

And on it went for some time. After a while he stated that it was time for the next part of the event and stepped down from the stage. Principle Blackwell came up and thanked him before announcing that they would be taking a drawing of all the student's names. The four winners would have the chance to talk with Seraphim one-on-one for fifteen minutes during lunch hour.

Imagine my surprise when I was the third name drawn. Perhaps an actual hero would be able to help me with the bullying? It was worth a try. I resolved to ask as I was ushered into the office, passing by the boy before me on the way. Seraphim looked a lot more comfortable sitting behind a desk than he did standing behind a podium.

"So, you have any questions that you didn't want to ask in front of everybody? I'm kind of new to the whole 'public figure' thing here myself."

"I, um, er… Do you think you can help me with my bullies?!" Way to go Taylor, just let it all come out at once without even introducing yourself. "Uh, I'm Taylor by the way."

"Um, nice to meet you, I'm Seraphim. Do you… think you could clarify a bit?"

So I told him. I told him about how the Trio had harassed me since the school year started, a tiny bit about Emma's betrayal, and about how the school just didn't seem to care. It didn't take as long as I had thought it would, summarizing it as I did. He just listened to me until I was finished before giving me an answer.

"Well, I don't think I can do anything directly, since they aren't mugging you or anything, since they aren't technically breaking the law or anything as far as I know, and since I'm so new here and everything." I felt my hopes wilt. Of course he couldn't. "BUT! Even if I can't do anything directly, I can try and give you advice and stuff. I was homeschooled all my life, so I don't know how good my advice will be, but maybe I can give you someone to vent at in the future if you need it." That… would certainly be better than nothing.

He continued; "I learned not to hold on to things for very long. A big part of that comes from my faith in God, but I don't think you're looking for that kind of answer. I think you need a distraction. Maybe you should try just being a nerd? It's loads of fun just collecting knowledge of phantasy and sci-fi stuff, especially a lot of the stuff from Earth Aleph. Heck, I could lend you some of the stuff I have from there. Once you get into it, it's really fun and you can never stop thinking about your own ideas. As soon as you start something new you start thinking about all the ways it might be different if this or that change was made to the storyline, or if a character from one series was brought into another."

I raised an eyebrow. "So in other words, 'Come to the Nerd side, we have pi?'"

He laughed. "Hahahahaha! Yeah, I suppose so! The fact that you know that joke tells me you shouldn't have too much trouble becoming a member of the great Nerd Clan." He checked his watch and I absently noted that he wore it on the inside of his wrist instead of the outside. Huh. "Anyway," he continued, "I think we're out of time, but I want to continue this conversation. Hmm…" He stroked his chin for a second before he seemed to decide on something. "I hope I don't seem like some kind of creeper, but here." He scribbled out a phone number on a notepad and handed it to me. "If you want to talk about this some more or just get some recommendations for good shows and stuff you can reach me here, or at least leave a message. It'll ring low-priority so you don't need to worry about causing problems for me in the middle of a patrol or a fight or anything. Who knows, maybe I'll even be able to put some sort of case together for you eventually. At any rate it was nice talking with you."

"Yeah, it was nice meeting you too," I reply. "And thanks." As I walk out I think on his advice. Maybe Seraphim was right. A distraction might be good for me. Just taking it sure didn't seem to be working out for me very well. And maybe, just maybe, finding some friends outside of school would help too, even if they weren't all the same age as me.

-End chapter-

**A/N: The poor grammar in Jacob's (Seraphim's) introduction speech is intentional, since I can easily see myself talking that way, and he is representative of me. He really isn't used to making speeches yet, is he? That will have changed after a couple of months of being a public figure. Next up is the first Interlude, which should explain some things.**


	5. Interlude 1-a: The Usurper

Welp, here I went, finished the last chapter, posted it, and decided to start a little work on the interlude, and before I knew it I was already done. Don't expect me to post this fast in the future folks. Like, _Ever_.

On to the story.

Interlude 1.a: The Usurper

The Usurper trailed behind his prey as it moved through the vastness of space, seeking out another planet of intelligent beings upon which to carry out their vile cycle. By staying just outside of their attention he could avoid suspicion, yet be ready when the time was right. He consulted his favorite master thought shard once more as the targets discovered their next set of victims. _Sorrow_. It would require the sacrifice of said favorite master shard to eliminate this pair in an optimal manner. The shard would not even be recoverable afterwards on its host's natural death, as many of the lesser precognition shards that worked with it so well informed him that the Thinker would place limits upon it as a last attempt at survival. He had little use for a master thought shard that was unable to model the actions of fellow entities.

The Usurper moved the Master precognition shard to a place that it would be easily seen and taken by the Thinker, in accordance with the path it provided him, checking one last time to memorize the details of the optimal path; it would not do to forget what was needed, after all. Once the Usurper was assured of its memory it moved quickly, ramming into the Thinker to exchange shards, as was customary among their kind. The thinker took the bait without even a thought to the possibility of his insincerity.

But then, why should it doubt his sincerity? It was unthinkable to them that they would be hunted, much less by one of their own. They rarely met one another, so how was it to know that he was the Usurper? How was it to know of the dozens of their kind that he had slain and whose remaining shards he had absorbed or left to serve their hosts? How was another entity to know, to suspect that one of their own had allowed a Queen Administrator shard to be suborned by its host, or that said host would go on to slay the entity and take its shards for itself?

The Usurper watched as the Thinker, still distracted and misconfigured from the exchange, crashed to the planet's surface and lost its new and unsecured master thought shard. _Glee_. He watched as it realized its approaching death from the shard's new host, and frantically limited the shard using its unique signature. _Loss (minor)_, _Regret (minor)_. He watched as the shard's host worked around the difficulty, ending the Thinker's life. _Satisfaction._

The next step in the plan was important. The master thought shard he had lost had offered him two certain paths to victory. In one, he would simply disguise one of the Queen Administrator shards from a former prey as belonging to the Warrior and release it limited to the prey's target host species, along with a few other choice shards. This would guarantee the death of the Warrior, and it would provide a 34.653793% chance of causing its slayer to become a fellow Usurper in time.

In the second path he would do the same, but the Queen Administrator shard be more heavily programmed. It would be tailored to fit a specific host, instructed to provide him with the ability most suited to him, and optimized to serve his imagination to an excessive degree, before being guided to bond with him some years after the entities' arrival. In this path the Warrior would die, and many less of the host species would die with him than the other, but the chances of another Usurper being created were only 00.461242%.

At this point it is important to note that while the entities exist in and travel between multiple dimensional planes, they are only capable of this along one dimensional axis. Along another axis, many versions of the Usurper made two different choices. While most follow the ones that made the first choice, we are concerned in this story with only a version that chose the latter path.

And so the world was changed.

-End Interlude-

A/N: Alright, so this is where those plotholes start filling in. What I decided to do here was to make this an alternate world of an idea I had inspired by Copacetic, by Materia-Blade. It also shows us a glimpse of why Jacob's tinker power is so _freaking_ effective, diverse, fast-working, and just… OP, if you look closely. Also the first sign in-story that his field of specialization might not be exactly what he thought it was (I hinted at something to that effect on the Spacebattles forum thread for this story). More on the reveals can be found on the Spacebattles post under a spoiler tag, and I'm putting a link to the thread there on my profile page.


	6. Interlude 1-b: PHO

**IMPORTANT EDIT/NOTE:**** The contest regarding the Blaster implant from Chapter 1-2 is closed! The winner is GBscientist from the Spacebattles forums, with the correct guess of Mugino Shizuri aka Meltdowner from Toaru Kagaku no Railgun aka A Certain Scientific Railgun.**

Interlude 1.b: PHO  
■

**Welcome to the Parahumans Online message boards.**  
You are currently logged in, Seraphim  
You are viewing:  
• Threads you have replied to  
• AND Threads that have new replies  
• OR private message conversations with new replies  
• Thread OP is displayed.  
• Ten posts per page  
• Last ten messages in private message history.  
• Threads and private messages are ordered chronologically.

** Topic: Seraphim comes to Brockton Bay  
In: Boards **** Capes **** Protectorate ENE  
Seraphim **(Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Protectorate ENE) (Veteran Member)  
Posted On May 17th 2010:  
Hello everyone. I'm Seraphim, a new cape that's moving in from out of state to join the Protectorate here. I was a cape geek back where I came from, and I figured I'd get the thread started off now so no one else would have to. I'll be showing up at some of the local schools this week to introduce myself to the city.

p.s. I got my account name changed and the new tags added by the mods, but I used to go by Minor_Apocalypse over on the Wisconsin and US General boards before I got powers, just in case anybody recognizes the name. Nice thing about maintaining anonymity before, I don't have to set up a new account!

**(Showing page 1 of 18)**

►**Bagrat **(Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On May 17th 2010:  
So, a new member of the Protectorate, huh? I look forward to seeing you in action. If you don't mind me asking, what sort of powers do you have?  
BTW, I do recognize that name. Nice to see you here, but why the move?

**Vista **(Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On May 17th 2010:  
Wow, a new member of the Protectorate and we haven't been told yet? Why am I finding this out here? You would think they would have told us ahead of time.

**XxVoid_CowboyxX **  
Replied On May 17th 2010:  
I bet that you're just pretending to be a member of the Protectorate. Not even the Wards have heard of you!

**Standard_S **  
Replied On May 17th 2010:  
XxVoid_CowboyxX: Seriously? Do you not see the "Verified Cape" and "Protectorate ENE" tags next to his name?

**Seraphim **(Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Protectorate ENE) (Veteran Member)  
Replied On May 17th 2010:  
Bagrat: I moved here because It was suggested to me that I could benefit from working under Armsmaster, since I'm a Tinker with a specialty that fits with his way of miniaturizing things really well.  
Vista: You probably haven't been told because it was such short notice.

**DarkShade6 **  
Replied On May 17th 2010:  
Events at the schools, eh? I wonder if one will be at my school...

**OuijaBeast **(Evil Incarnate)  
Replied On May 18th 2010:  
A new Tinker, huh? any info on what kind of stuff you like to make? or is that Classified Information?

**Standard_S **  
Replied On May 18th 2010:  
It probably isn't anything all that special as Tinkers go.  
OuijaBeast: Nice tag.

**OuijaBeast **(Evil Incarnate)  
Replied On May 18th 2010:  
Standard_S: Thanks. As far as not being all that special, I don't think that they would move just any old Tinker halfway across the country just to learn from a specific other tinker.

**End of Page. 1, ****2****, ****3**** ... ****16****, ****17****, ****18**

** Topic: A New Thread  
In: Boards **** Capes **** Protectorate ENE  
Seraphim **(Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Protectorate ENE) (Veteran Member)  
Posted On May 17th 2010:  
Hello everyone. I'm Seraphim, a new cape that's moving in from out of state to join the Protectorate here. I was a cape geek back where I came from, and I figured I'd get the thread started off now so no one else would have to. I'll be showing up at some of the local schools this week to introduce myself to the city.

p.s. I got my account name changed and the new tags added by the mods, but I used to go by Minor_Apocalypse over on the Wisconsin and US General boards before I got powers, just in case anybody recognizes the name.

**(Showing page 17 of 18)**

►**Crumbl'd **(Banned)  
Replied On May 24th 2010:  
:Seraphim: Again I ask: why are you using Simurgh imagery for your cape identity? Don't you care about the people that she's killed? What sort of sicko are you?

**Seraphim **(Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Protectorate ENE) (Veteran Member)  
Replied On May 24th 2010:  
Crumbl'd: And again I will answer you: I'm not using 'Simurgh imagery.' I'm using imagery taken from the Bible, specifically where it says in Isaiah 6:  
"Above him stood the Seraphim; each had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew."  
Just because the Simurgh takes vaguely the shape of an angel doesn't mean that angels are suddenly evil. I've answered you several times now, and I will not do so again. Deal with it.

**UrsineScientist **  
Replied On May 25th 2010:  
Crumbl'd: Nobody agrees with you. The mods have warned you twice about harping on this already. Just. Shut. The. F*ck. Up. Seriously, you have to be obsessed or something.

**TinMother **(Moderator)  
Replied On May 25th 2010:  
Crumbl'd: As UrsineScientist said, you have been warned twice already about verbal harassment and derailing the thread with a closed topic. Have a ban while you think about the meaning of religious freedom.

**Standard_S **  
Replied On May 25th 2010:  
Now that THAT repeated derail has FINALLY been taken care of(THANK YOU TinMother), we can get back to discussing whether Seraphim would need wings to make a flight implant work fully. I agree with UrsineScientist that they would be of help, but only because they could help with maneuvering in midair. I don't really see them being necessary, bacause they would have to be huge to generate enough lift for a human on their own.

**Bagrat **(Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On May 25th 2010:  
It really depends on how the flight implant works. If it negates or reduces gravity's effect on him, then Seraphim would definitely need the wings. If it works by imitating whatever effect one of the other flying capes, like say, Alexandria, uses to fly, then they probably wouldn't be relevant at all. If they use some other means then Standard_S might be right.

**GstringGirl **  
Replied On May 25th 2010:  
We might as well just wait and ask him once it's finished and he takes it out for a patrol.

**Seraphim **(Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Protectorate ENE) (Veteran Member)  
Replied On May 25th 2010:  
I'll have to wait until I've finished moving in and they've set me up a lab to make it. I'm driving across country with all my stuff today, so I'm just using Mc'Donalds wifi to post right now while I stop for lunch. I'd love to tell you guys, but villains read the boards too, so I can't go saying something that might be used by them against me. Sorry.

**DarkShade6 **  
Replied On May 25th 2010:  
Dammit! That means we're never going to find out!

**XxVoid_CowboyxX **  
Replied On May 25th 2010:  
Epic fail, the whole discussion was pointless

**End of Page. ****1****, ****2****, ****3**** ... ****15****, ****16****, 17**

**(Showing page 18 of 18)**

►**Bagrat **(Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On May 25th 2010:  
XxVoid_CowboyxX: Not really. If nothing else, we had an engaging conversation on physics.

**DarkShade6 **  
Replied On May 25th 2010:  
Yeah, I learned a lot from this, and it was actually pretty interesting, not like class at all.

**OuijaBeast **(Evil Incarnate)  
Replied On May 25th 2010:  
We still haven't addressed the issue of how he plans to do the wings in the first place. He can't just go and attach wings to himself. That would blow his civilian ID straight out of the water, for one thing.

**Space Zombie **  
Replied On May 25th 2010:  
OuijaBeast: Good point, that. Of course, if we ask he'll probably tell us the same thing he did about the necessity of wings...

**End of Page. ****1****, ****2****, ****3**** ... ****16****, ****17****, 18**

**-EndChapter-**

**A/N: on the Spacebattles forum thread for this story(link in my profile page) I have posted a list of all the hints I have given thus far for the contest regarding the implant from chapter 1.2, and also informed them that the character in question comes from an anime. I did this because I have thus far only received 2 guesses in total for the contest between both here and Spacebattles, both of which were way off.**


	7. The Days of a Hero 2-1

**A/N: In case you didn't see after I edited it in at he beginning of last chapter: The 'guess that reference' challenge is over, due to having a winner. Raise your hands for _GBscientist_, over on the Spacebattles forums. His adaptation for the PHO interlude was UrsineScientist.**

The Days of a Hero

2.1

Two weeks into 'heroing' Jacob was tired of spending all his time in the lab. It was odd; nearly every other tinker he talked with seemed like they would be perfectly happy spending their entire life building things, but he _needed_ to go out and _use_ what he made. His inspiration was slowly drying up and he just _knew_ that he needed to see some action before he could progress farther. Patrols were hardly a stopgap. Nothing had happened to him yet, and he needed to experience some action. It wasn't like nothing was going on. Other Protectorate members had run into action on their patrols, but he always wound up on the quietest routes. In the last few days he had become more and more certain: he was being intentionally kept from action.

And that was why he had gone to talk with Armsmaster, or Colin, as he was called out of armor. "I'm getting straight to the point sir. Why am I being kept away from action? And please don't deny it, there is no way that it's a coincidence that my patrols are always in the nicest parts of town. The Wards get more action, for pity's sake!" It was also why he was frustrated enough to so blunt with his superior.

Colin raised an eyebrow. "I felt that it was advisable to let you build up a decent repertoire of tinkertech before sending you on higher-risk patrols. Tinkers are at their most vulnerable towards the beginning of their careers, and you could be one of the better tinkers in the Protectorate from what I was told. I'm not sure that I've seen much evidence of that, though. You haven't even finished that flight implant that you were going on about."

Jacob's jaw clenched for a moment at this. Of course he hadn't finished the implant. Firstly, it had two components that had to be made and implanted separately and then linked, and one of them provided what was a decent Shaker power in its own right. With his inspiration flowing slower and slower as it was the schematics for them were just getting more muddled in his mind as time went by, and it had just gotten too difficult to work before he was finished with the second one. "Yes, and that is why I need to see some action. I can't seem to think about it clearly. I keep getting distracted by this… urge to use the implants that I already have. Just shooting at targets does nothing. I need something to fight; if I just had some sort of _action_ on a regular basis I would be able to think about my projects clearly! It's like my powers won't let me go farther cooped up in a lab, I need to get out and _do stuff."_

That got him a frown from Colin and a slightly condescending tone. "Tinker powers don't work that way Seraphim. On a more important topic I have noticed that you don't spend as much time in your lab working as you should. Your projects are suffering from your negligence, and until you show more diligence in preparing yourself I cannot in good conscience sen-"

Jacob was furious. Words could barely describe what he was feeling right then. Armsmaster had just brushed his words off without even considering them, and now he was telling him that he wasn't doing enough to get ready?! His projects just plain didn't _take_ that long! They never had; not until the inspiration had stopped coming as it should because he wasn't _doing_ anything with what he made! He exploded, interrupting Armsmater mid-statement.

"Are you_ seriously_ just brushing this off?! Are you _seriously_ going to tell me how _my_ power works and just order me into my lab?! Every Tinker in the _world_ is different! My power _does not work the same as yours!_ I tell you that it needs regular conflict to work as it should, and you just tell me 'Tinker powers don't work that way,' as if you knew everything there is to know about the subject! No. Nuh-uh. No way am I going to sit around and just _stagnate_ because you couldn't do your _freaking_ job as my team leader. Your job is to make us the most effective heroes we can be, and you are _actively_ doing the exact _opposite_ right now!"

He stormed away, leaving Colin gaping after him like a fish. If Armsmaster wouldn't get him what he needed then he would go higher up the food chain. Alexandria, at least, would understand that when someone tells you they have figured out something important about how their power works you _listen_ to them. After he had sent her an email, well, then it would be time for some… unscheduled patrols.

-Break-Unleash the Clichés-Break-

Jacob wasn't stupid when he picked the route for his little escapade. He made sure that it would take him through an area that was both at-risk for Merchant activity and that would be out of the way of anyone else who was on patrol. No sense in ticking off either of the more effective gangs right off, or in causing problems for his teammates.

Behind him his newest implant had created creamy white energy shields in the shape of a pair of feathery wings. They were incapable of moving relative to himself unless he made them. While this meant that they could be used to maneuver midair, it could also be a double edged sword if he wasn't careful. If someone could force the wings to move anyways, it would move him as well. Without the second implant the wings weren't very useful beyond helping him roof hop or as shields.

A noise caught his attention, for what must have been the twentieth time. So far they had all been false starts, but this sounded like... A cry of pained despair came again from several alleys over. Jacob jumped off the roof, shaping his wings into a more effective form for gliding to take him to one end of the alley, where they then wrapped around his torso like body armor. What he saw there sickened him.

A group of six gangbangers had a youngish looking Hispanic woman on the ground, slightly bloodied and mostly naked. One of them was just standing up and rebuttoning his pants. Jacob, no, Seraphim saw no particular gang colors, which in and of itself marked them as Merchants, from what he had been told. It was probably the most clichéd gang crime scene one could think of; Jacob knew that this sort of thing happened, and yet it still brought forth feelings of fury to see it.

"You," he said as he stepped into the alley, "You are going stop." One of the Merchants heard him and glanced in his direction. "$^#*! It's a $^#*ing cape!" The rest turned to Seraphim as he continued walking towards them. "I might've let you surrender peacefully if I hadn't come late, but now I'm gonna _hurt_ you first." Three of green orbs of light formed in the air around him.

One Merchant decided to reassure the others. "It's the newbie *%#&amp;sucker! They've been givin' 'im the easy treatment 'cause the $^#*er's too weak to handle anything real." He casually raised his gun and shot Seraphim in the chest three times. The shots ricocheted off his wings, and a beam of plasma melted the Merchant's gun in his hand. As he cursed and screamed in pain one wing unwrapped itself from Seraphim's body and flared outwards as far as the alley allowed it to, then each of its many 'feathers' individually angled itself towards the gangbangers.

The feather-shaped forcefields cut through the air.

-Break-

After the police arrived to take the captured gangbangers and their sobbing victim off his hands, Seraphim made his way slowly back to headquarters. He had gotten what he wanted, and he now knew that he had chosen the right job. The sheer level of hatred he had felt for what he had seen went far beyond what he had expected. If he could prevent that from happening again, it would make things worthwhile. He wasn't going to stop with just once though. He would do so again and _again_, and the people who dared to do such things would learn to fear his name. For the moment however, he knew exactly how he was going to finish that flight implant.

He entered his lab to find Armsmaster, armored up save for his helmet, glaring at him. "Well, Crap."

"Indeed."

-A/N-

And here we are introduced to one of Jacob's power's limitations, and get to see a good old clichéd entrance into hero work. Why is QA actively forcing him into conflict when it is a Usurper shard? Part of it is that unlike other tinkers his powers are designed to be ideal for using the produced technology, rather than simply making things for the sake of making them. As a result he is able to make things very quickly compared to other Tinkers and basically maintenance free or self-maintaining, but at the cost of what you see in this chapter. Other than that, who knows? Also, rest assured that his insubordination will not go entirely unpunished, though the punishment will be mostly referred to after the fact.

This arc will be composed of some of Jacob's experiences in the Protectorate prior to the time of Taylor's trigger.


	8. Apology,PRT File:Shield Wings, & Summary

To all you who have been waiting for me to publish the next chapter I apologize. Family events have kept me busy these last few days and look to continue doing so until my summer classes start next Monday. Once that happens I will no longer have time to continue writing this story at any reasonable pace, and when I do once again have the time to write I will likely want to start on something entirely different. To that end I have written a summary of where I was planning on taking this story below. Each bullet point is roughly a chapter as I was envisioning it. I have also included a copy of the "PRT files" post from the Spacebattles thread on Seraphim's Shield Wings first. Don't read farther than that if you don't want spoilers in the case that I do ever pick this back up.

If you want to use the Crystalline Energy Lattice tech used in the implant for anything, ASK ME FIRST! That idea is MINE and MINE ALONE! I will definitely say yes, so long as you cite me, but that is an original idea of mine that I plan to use if I ever write an actual book or story of my own. I'll also give you a much more detailed description of what exactly it is, how it works, and why it is so much better than energy shield and Solid State Energy tech you will see elsewhere when I give you permission, so it is to your advantage to be courteous here.

-PRT FILES POST-

Files: Restricted Access: Parahumans: High Clearance Access: Protectorate: Brockton Bay: Seraphim: Shield Wings 

General Description: An Implant developed and used by the hero Seraphim. Manipulation for use is achieved by means of neural interfacing technology, and power is supplied by a Graft Wave receiver component. Generates a number of force fields in the form of feathers and wing structure that interlock to form a pair of wings reaching from Seraphim's back. Each component ordinarily fits tightly enough together to be airtight, but can be moved separately if needed. Case in point, 'feathers' can be used as projectiles if need be, either individually or en-masse, but they are otherwise immobile relative to Seraphim unless he moves them. For further information on their uses as projectiles see notes on force field composition and multitasking below. Seraphim seems to be able to move the wings as though they are actually parts of his body, even on a subconscious level, and extend or dissolve them at will. While the wings on their own are incapable of anything beyond a well-controlled glide, when used in conjuncture with the 'Force-Wing' implant they enable high levels of maneuverability in flight. Further inquiry with Seraphim has revealed that he was unable to make the implant produce fields in other shapes at this time, although this may change in the future.

Location of implant: Back of chest cavity, in front and to the right of the sixth thoracic vertebrae.

Further Notes: (phrases in single quotation marks are directly quoted from Seraphim's report.)

The force field phenomenae generated by this implant make use of 'pure energy that acts like matter' to form a barrier. Unlike force fields observed that are directly created by a parahuman power, the individual 'feathers' are three dimensional constructs. Rather than being of effectively infinite thinness or a simple wall of solid energy, Seraphim claims that they are composed of many 'two dimensional force fields locked to each other in a three dimensional fractal lattice, using the octahedral crystalline structure of diamonds.' In consequence they are extremely energy efficient once deployed 'due to holding themselves together instead of bleeding off energy all the time,' and have resisted all attempts to break through or damage them thus far.

Seraphim is capable of making the edges of each 'feather' incredibly sharp as desired. He states that 'Because of their fractal crystalline structure and their nature as pure energy I can make the edges of my feathers reach the theoretical state of mathematically infinite sharpness. This is only possible because they are made of pure energy that is behaving like matter without being conducted by, or exerted directly upon, any actual matter, since you can only get so small with matter before you would need smaller atoms first.' It has been confirmed that so far, aside from other forms of pure energy shielding, Seraphim's sharpened feathers have cut everything they have been tested against with equal ease.

Also notable is the fact that Seraphim seems to be able to make full use of each feather at the same time as though he were focusing solely on it while not being distracted from other activities. See file on Seraphim's base power for speculations on a possible secondary Thinker ability.

File Last Updated: July 2, 2010

-STORY SUMMARY-

-Next chapter would have seen Taylor running into Jacob in a game store and recognizing him from several combined factors, the first of which being that he is wearing his watch on the inside of his wrist, as she had also noticed in chapter 1.3. They become friends. Jacob also starts working with the Wards a bit around this time as part of his punishment for insubordination in 2.1, but actually enjoys it due to working well with kids.

-Next would be a chapter with Seraphim's first endbringer fight. Seraphim is hurt and gets treated by Panacea, who is amazed to discover that his implants register as "alive" according to the Manton Effect.

-The chapter afterwards would see Sophia getting pressed into the Wards, as in canon, but unlike canon Seraphim notices that she is one of Taylor's bullies due to his friendship with Taylor. Sophia is restricted further in ways designed to prevent the continuation of this, but it just leads to Emma picking up the slack instead. Seraphim begins implanting a select few PRT officers with his implants, cutting heavily into progress on further enhancing himself.

ARC 3 Begins

-At around the same time as the locker in canon, Emma does something bad enough to cause Taylor to trigger. The original idea for Taylor's power was something along the lines of being able to dress up as fictional characters and get their supernatural abilities and some measure of their skills. Sort of a cosplayer's dream power. The more closely she was imitating a character when she activated her power, the more powerful she would be with their abilities. By now though I was planning on having Taylor trigger with either Grana's or Amagi Miroku's abilities from Psyren, which you probably haven't heard of. Grana is a ridiculously powerful TK, self-enhancer, and is strongly implied to be equally as powerful in the use of things like telepathy and energy blasts, though I would definitely remove the telepathy part. For an idea of how powerful his TK is, he has a habit of telekinetically gathering all incoming sunlight in a part of the sky for a short time to a single point, and then using it all at once as a massive beam attack that he calls "Divine Judgement." The second time he does this he uses several at once without showing any strain. Amagi Miroku has an extremely powerful ability called "Sephirot" that uses a "tree of light" in a number of ways that are a bit hard to explain, and he is also a very powerful self-enhancer.

-Taylor considers joining the Wards, but at this point the Paige Maccabee Trial occurs. Seraphim publicly denounces the trial, listing several ways that the proceedings were directly illegal, before stating that he cannot directly work for a legal system that ignores its own laws, and leaving the Protectorate.

-_GBscientist_'s prize come into play here, as Seraphim uses the requested Robot Dinosaurs(purchased from Toybox) as distractions when he breaks Canary from prison. As they escape they are confronted by Armsmaster, who tells Seraphim to stand down if he wants to be looked at leniently. Seraphim refuses, stating that as soon as someone gets it into their head that he could have created an implant that would justify Master/Stranger protocols all chance of a fair trial would go out the window. Before Armsmaster can attack he is contacted by Alexandria who tells him to shut up before he somehow turns Seraphim into an outright anarchist, and that they will deal with Seraphim and Canary another time.

ARC 4 Begins

-Seraphim, Canary, and Taylor form a new team. The PRT and Protectorate decide to leave them alone despite the prison break and Canary's conviction, since they are willing to play ball and are a powerful resource in dealing with S-class threats. It is not seen as worth it to pursue since they are working as heroes, rather than villains, and Canary is offered the chance for a retrial. They state that they will not submit or consent to being tried at the very least until laws are in place that they feel can assure them of a fair trial.

-Events occur in Brockton Bay for a chapter or few and, depending both on what I found out about her canon personality and on how the story has developed at this point, Canary and Seraphim might become a couple.

-Leviathan attacks Brockton Bay. Unlike canon, Scion arrives at the end of the fight. He is confused by the fact that some PRT officers who register according to his senses as unconnected to a shard are using abilities that should not be possible for normal humans, because of Seraphim-given implants. While he is distracted the Usurper attacks his real body and kills him. Scion's projected body dies publicly as Leviathan is driven off.

After this point I was planning on possibly ending Mechabiological and continuing with a sequel. The sequel would include the Slaughterhouse 9 coming to town, and either Bonesaw or Mannequin would pick Seraphim as a candidate. Seraphim would first encounter Mannequin, and would totally obliterate him in short order. However the rest of the S9 arc would go, Bonesaw would be conscripted from the S9 at the end by Seraphim's group, Seraphim stating that he is a strong believer in personal redemption. I don't really know enough about Worm's storyline from there to say where it would go, but I suspect that there would be so many butterflies in place that EVERYTHING would be different. With Scion's apparently-spontaneous death Eidolon wouldn't feel so much pressure to regain his old power, for one thing, and thus endbringer attacks would drop sharply in both frequency and severity, leaving the world to wonder what that meant.


End file.
